Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 19 "The Only Light In the Darkness"

NOTE: As we've discussed previously, it is no longer feasible to discuss Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. without also discussing spoilers for Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Read on at your own risk especially since I'm also going to spoil the episode itself.

So where were we?

S.H.I.E.L.D. is no more. Unbeknownst to even Nick Fury, the evil organization HYDRA - thought defeated during WWII back when it was The Red Skull's Nazi "deep science" division - had survived into the present day as a secret-society within The Agency itself. When the HYDRA "infection" spread all the way to the top, Captain America and Black Widow were forced to dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D. entirely. The world believes Fury is dead, only a select few know otherwise.

HYDRA has been thwarted, but its splinter-factions and associate groups still exist. One such group turns out to be CENTIPEDE, the super-soldier bootlegging outfit that Team Coulson has spent all season hunting.

CENTIPEDE's leader, "The Clairvoyant," was actually S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent John Garrett, a member of HYDRA. Team Coulson's resident combat-specialist Agent Ward was been revealed to have also been HYDRA himself - and Garrett's spy - the whole time. Garrett's (recent) ex-partner, Agent Triplett, is not HYDRA and has joined The Agents... who don't yet know about Ward.

Coulson's friendship with Agent May has been obliterated by the revelation that she was assigned to be his secret "handler" by Nick Fury... and that she's known the truth (or most of it) about T.A.H.I.T.I. the whole time.

Team Coulson has followed an electronic trail left by Nick Fury to a top secret safehouse in the Canadian wilderness, overseen by Agent Koenig (Patton Oswalt.)

Garrett and Ward have looted a treasure trove in weapons and alien/superhuman technology from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s storage facility, The Fridge - including the Gravitonium which may still contain the sentient presence of Professor Franklin Hall. For good measure, they've also released its community of superhuman prisoners into the wild.

HYDRA/CENTIPEDE needs access to a pilfered hard drive that can only be opened by Agent Skye, so Ward is going back undercover...